Over the last several months, we've continued to upgrade both our services and our system. However, we still have one recurring problem - complaints from customers that their modem is disconnected in mid-surf! Don't get me wrong, the overwhelming majority of our users do NOT experience this problem, but for those who do, it is an annoying problem.

There are several possible reasons for this, and we won't discuss them here. For more information on modems, see the page on our site labeled What Should You Expect From a Dialup Connection?. That page discusses the various issues with using a modem over phone lines that were never designed (or more importantly, have never been upgraded!!!) for use with your computer. Instead, we want to try to help you figure out the problem.

The primary purpose of this page is to troubleshoot your dialup connection, and figure out the best thing to do to stop your disconnects. Remember, at Dixie-net, WE DO NOT DISCONNECT FOLKS FROM OUR END!!!!!! Generally, disconnects are related to either (a) modem inconsistencies, or (b) insufficient capabilities related to the telephone line (in other words, either your modem doesn't like ours, or your phone line isn't up to snuff!).

If you're having this trouble, obviously the first thing we want you to do is contact our Help Desk. There are two ways to do this. The first is simply to email support@dixie-net.com and tell them your problem. The second way is to call our Help Desk directly. We're open late and on weekends and holidays. The Help Desk number for your area is available by clicking the "Help Desk" button at the top of our home page. We have several things we can talk you through that generally cure the problem. However, IF, after talking to our tech support folks, you still have problems, here's what we want you to do:

First, remain calm :)

Actually, in some cases, this is really annoying and it's real hard to be patient. But, with your participation, we can hopefully not only find new ways of combatting this problem, but may eventually end up with a solution. Again, remember, MOST cases are solved with just a few keystrokes that our Help Desk folks can talk you through. Problems beyond that are rare, but are frustrating. We just want to help those very few people with this page.

Sooo, if you fall into this category, and have pretty much exhausted the remedies our Help Desk folks have come up with, then do this:

EACH time you're disconnected, email the following information to a special mailbox we've set up:

(1) The EXACT time you were disconnected
(2) What Operating System version you're using (Windows 95, Windows 98, etc.)
(3) What you were doing when the disconnect occurred (e.g. downloading a file, browsing E-Bay, whatever)
(4) The brand of modem you have, and whether it's internal or external (external modems are a separate box from your computer).
(5) The speed of your modem (28.8, 33.6, 56K, etc).
(7) A good time to reach you by phone
(8) Your phone number.

Email this information to: Disconnects@dixie-net.com.

With this information, we can build a database of modems, conditions, and other data that will allow our network engineers to devise better procedures to fix the problem.

One final thing. EVERY ISP HAS THIS PROBLEM!!!! Sometimes just changing the telephone number you dial fixes the problem and sometimes it requires several dozen phone calls to the telephone company before the problem can be fixed. Either way, EVERYONE in the ISP business is fighting this problem. At Dixie-Net, we just want to go the extra mile.

With your cooperation, we can hopefully fix the few really obnoxious problems that some customers have problems with. We appreciate your cooperation, and THANKS for using Dixie-net!!!!!